Wild
Boar Drives Hero to Rebel
Outlaw of the marsh

The Water Margin （水浒）is one of the four greatest
classic Chinese fictions, and The Wild Boar Forest (野猪林)
is one of the most enduring classics in Beijing Opera repertoires,
while Li Shaochun (李少春) played hero Lin
Chong (林冲) is one of the most memorable characters in
Chinese Opera stage.

The story is set in the dying day of the North Song Dynasty
when China's GDP was the highest in the world despite the
constant external assaults from Manchu tartar and other militant
nomadic tribes. Yet high GDP figure did not prevent
the nation from collapse, because a group of corrupted government
officials worked tirelessly on driving the military members,
police officers, scholars and kung fu men to rebel.

Among all corrupted officials, the most senior one was Cai
Jing (蔡京), the premier of the day. Cai used to be the keen
supporter of reform-obsessed premier Wang Anshi who famously
declared that "天变不足畏, 祖宗不足法, 人言不足恤“ (there is no need
to respect Heaven, there is no need to follow the tradition,
there is no need to listen to what people say). In the excuse
of "宁要不完美的改革，不要完美的不改革“ , "with the threat of "不改革死路一条“，the
arrogant and ignorant reformology cult followers turned the
Chinese society upside down by transforming order into chaos
for the passion or the interest of the few.

After the failed reform, that was no more than 瞎折腾 (keep
changing for nothing)，Cai was impeached, but with the help
of eunuch Tong Guan he successfully won back his place in
the government and rose to prominence. When he eventually
became premier, he introduced the policy of huashigang (花石綱),
reforming the plain royal garden scene of the north China
with the decorative stones genetically modified by the power
of water in the Yangtze delta, and announced measures to
make his own family and associated rich households richer
through new tax regimes for tea and salt, which led to widespread
resentment among general population.

While he arranged his own family members and associates
to important government positions - his brother became the
Grand Secretary of the terrestrial development bureau, and
his son was promoted to the governor of the celestial communication
headquarters, just to meation a few - he kept framing loyalists
for treason, forcing some of them to join the outlaws at
the marsh.

Chinese people eventually got enough of him. In 1125, an
Imperial professor submitted a report to the head of the
state, the Emperor, denouncing Cai as the head of the gang
of "six traitors", who were responsible for the
government's decline. Cai Jing was eventually found guilty.
After being stripped off his official post, he was banished
to Guangdong. But before he could reached his destination,
he died of starvation at Changsha, Mao
Zedong's hometown. (We bet he feared and hated that place
ever since.)

The opera was created by Li Shaochun almost single handedly,
from script, music to kung fu stunts. Other top Beijing Opera
artists specialising in mature male roles (老生)
include his teachers Yu Shuyan (余叔岩)
and Yang Xiaolou (杨小楼),
his disciple Qian
Haoliang (钱浩梁), as well
as Ma
Lianliang (马连良), Zhou
Xinfang (周信芳), Yang Baosen
(杨宝森), Yan Jupeng (言菊朋), Gao
Qingkui (高庆奎), Yu
Zhikui (余智魁) and so
on.

The following is the personality assessment
done by Australian's Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan on Kevin
Rudd, who was previously ousted from the PM post and now freshly
resigned from the FM position.

"For too long, Kevin Rudd has been putting his
own self-interest ahead of the interests of the broader Labor
movement and the country as a whole,
and that needs to stop.

"The Party has given Kevin Rudd all the opportunities in
the world and he wasted them with his dysfunctional decision
making and his deeply demeaning attitude towards other people including
our caucus colleagues.

"He was the party’s biggest beneficiary then its
biggest critic; but never a loyal or selfless
example of its values and objectives.

"For the interests of the Labor movement and of working
people, there is too much at stake in our economy and
in the political debate for the interests of the Labor movement
and working people to be damaged by somebody who does not hold
any Labor values.

"Colleagues are sick of Kevin Rudd driving the
vote down by sabotaging policy announcements and undermining
our substantial economic successes.

"The Labor Party is not about a person, it’s about
a purpose. That’s something Prime Minister Gillard
has always known in her heart but something Kevin Rudd
has never understood."